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   Thousands 'too ashamed' to tell family or doctors they have dementia: Report   
   compares stigma to that of HIV in the 1980s   
      
   Report warns stigma is depriving patients of the vital help they need    
   Only half of estimated dementia cases in Britain have been diagnosed    
   Experts fear sufferers avoid being given diagnosis as they feel ashamed    
   By SOPHIE BORLAND FOR THE DAILY MAIL   
      
   PUBLISHED: 18:16 EST, 26 October 2014 | UPDATED: 06:06 EST, 27 October 2014   
      
           
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   Thousands of dementia patients are hiding symptoms from loved ones and doctors   
   because they are ashamed, a report warns.   
      
   It compares the stigma to that of HIV and Aids in the 1980s and says as many   
   as a quarter of those suffering are refusing to speak out.   
      
   Doctors say patients tell them how their friends 'disappeared' after they were   
   diagnosed and in some cases how their own children have stopped visiting.   
      
   Scroll down for video    
      
   Thousands of dementia patients are hiding the symptoms from their loved ones   
   because they are ashamed, a new report warns (file image)   
   +1   
   Thousands of dementia patients are hiding the symptoms from their loved ones   
   because they are ashamed, a new report warns (file image)   
      
   A joint report led by the Medical Research Council warns that this   
   'unacceptable stigma' is denying patients vital help and resulting in them   
   being 'marginalised' from the rest of society.   
      
   Around 850,000 patients in Britain are thought to have dementia but only half   
   have been given a proper diagnosis. The Government is urging GPs to improve   
   their detection rates over concerns that victims and their families are   
   struggling in silence.   
      
   But part of the problem is that many patients are too afraid to be diagnosed   
   so do not make an appointment in the first place.   
      
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   Professor Hugh Perry, chairman of the neuroscience and mental health board at   
   the MRC, said: 'The embarrassment and shame of having a disease associated   
   with both age and mental health is a real barrier to people seeking the help   
   they need.   
      
   'A long time ago there was a stigma attached to cancer and more recently HIV.   
   In both cases it stopped people from getting treatment and that's sadly the   
   case with dementia.'   
      
   The report is based on in-depth interviews of patients with dementia, their   
   relatives, specialist doctors and academics.   
      
   'PEOPLE DON'T WANT TO KNOW'    
      
   Sylvia Kahn, 77, a retired solicitor, was diagnosed with dementia three years   
   ago.   
      
   She said that since then people 'don't want to know' and often 'turn away'.   
      
   The grandmother, who lives with her husband Bob in Warrington, Cheshire, said:   
   'Those of us with Alzheimer's are often deeply hurt when people are afraid to   
   talk to us.   
      
   'Why should you stigmatise us? We didn't ask for the dementia. It's not a   
   crime.'   
      
   Mrs Kahn decided to leave her job after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's   
   following a series of memory scans in 2011.   
      
   With her husband she now works for the Alzheimer's Society giving talks and   
   helping raise funding for the research.   
      
   It describes how patients' friends and close relatives often distance   
   themselves and don't 'dare ask' how they are. In some cases, the report warns   
   that patients' own children stop visiting them because the deterioration is   
   'too hard to watch'.   
      
   And it also cites figures from a study in 2012 involving 157 dementia patients   
   which found one in four had tried to hide their symptoms from family and   
   friends.   
      
   George McNamara, head of policy and public affairs at the Alzheimer's Society,   
   which was also involved in the report said: 'We've come a long way in terms of   
   raising awareness but we still need to do more as a society to banish the   
   stigma surrounding    
   dementia once and for all.'   
      
   In a forward to the report, Professor Alistair Burns, a Department of Health   
   expert on dementia and Baroness Sally Greengross, chairman of the   
   All-Parliamentary Group on dementia, write: 'We still have much to understand   
   about why dementia remains    
   outside the realm of acceptable conversation.'   
      
   Early symptoms of dementia include loss of memory, difficulties concentrating,   
   depression and confusion. Certain drugs including donepezil, rivastigmine and   
   galantamine can temporarily halt the decline but only if given in the early   
   stages.   
      
   Last year David Cameron pledged to make dementia a national priority and said   
   there would be a cure by 2025. The Government has also promised that by next   
   year doctors will have diagnosed two thirds of all patients with the illness.   
      
   Recent estimates show diagnosis is as low as 45 per cent and in some areas as   
   low as one in seven.   
      
   Last week it emerged NHS officials were planning to pay GPs £55 for every new   
   patient diagnosed with dementia between now and March.   
      
   A Department of Health spokesman said: 'Real change is needed, that's why we   
   are working with the Alzheimer's Society and Public Health England to help   
   tackle stigma and increase understanding.'   
      
   What is dementia? Alzheimer's Society explains   
      
       
   http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2808888/Thousands-ashame   
   -tell-family-doctors-dementia-Report-compares-stigma-HIV-1980s.html   
      
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